Review by Booklist Review
Gr. 1-3. Events in this dragon's dream are of nightmarish proportions. In surreal-style double-page spreads, the dragon endures teasing by turkeys, sentencing by storks, and towing by turtles. The alliterative text appeals and the illustrations, with their myriad multiples for numbers 1 to 10, mesmerize. (Published in the U.S. by Bradbury.)
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-3-One dragon falls asleep under his green-checked blanket and dreams of two turkeys that tease him. The odd dream continues, and an ever-increasing number of animals (three tigers, four frogs, and so on) torment the poor dragon in some way. Eventually, the hapless creature is brought into court, sentenced, and "juggled off to jail" by seven slippery sea lions. In the end, he is rescued and "towed home to bed" by a "team of ten turtles." The dragon wakes safe and sound under his cozy blanket. The spare text is enhanced by the author's imaginatively frenetic ink and watercolor illustrations. Each spread is a puzzle of random objects to be counted. As five kangaroos fence in the dragon, children can also search for five owls, five dogs, five buttons, and a plethora of other items grouped in fives on the page. Much of the imagery evokes the magical age of knights and dragons. This book is not as kid-friendly as Leo and Diane Dillon's cheerful Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose (Harcourt, 2007), but older readers may appreciate this surreal counting book's sophisticated themes and elaborate illustrations.-Linda L. Walkins, Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Brighton, MA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
